Sperm whales rattle off pulses of clicks while swimming together, raising the possibility that they’re communicating in a complex language.
Credit...Amanda Cotton
May 7, 2024
Ever since the discovery of whale songs almost 60 years ago, scientists have been trying to decipher their lyrics. Are the animals producing complex messages akin to human language? Or sharing simpler pieces of information, like dancing bees do? Or are they communicating something else we don’t yet understand?
In 2020, a team of marine biologists and computer scientists joined forces to analyze the click-clacking songs of sperm whales, the gray, block-shaped leviathans that swim in most of the world’s oceans. On Tuesday, the scientists reported that the whales use a much richer set of sounds than previously known, which they called a “sperm whale phonetic alphabet.”
People have a pho-ne-tic alphabet too, which we use to produce a practically infinite supply of words. But Shane Gero, a marine biologist at Carleton University in Ottawa and an author of the study, said it’s unclear whether sperm whales similarly turn their phonetic sounds into a language.
“The fundamental similarities that we do find are really fascinating,” Dr. Gero said. “It’s totally changed the way we have to do work going forward.”
Since 2005, Dr. Gero and his colleagues have followed a clan of 400 sperm whales around Dominica, an island nation in the eastern Caribbean, eavesdropping on the whales with u
Only a 2 or 3 cups a week, my wife does all the heavy coffee drinking, we have an espresso machine and a cup one.
I mostly drink carbonated water and tea and sometimes a double espresso (fresh ground beans) with some cream. Sometimes when I really enjoy the cup of coffee I will take another cup.
I am Dutch and endorse this above statement. Also Kelvin MacKenzie…what a piece of shit he is, scum of the earth.
All I did wrong there was tell the truth. There was a surge of Liverpool fans who had been drinking and that is what caused the disaster. The only thing different we did was put it under the headline "The Truth". I went on The World at One the next day and apologised. I only did that because Rupert Murdoch told me to. I wasn't sorry then and I'm not sorry now because we told the truth.
Congratulations on having weed legalized, where here in the Netherlands it is still not, although we have the first coffeshops around 50 years ago.
I remember working in Remscheid and my boss smoking hashish with my coworker and me, after work we where stoned af. He had been jailed before getting caught smuggling hash so he was pretty careful, secretly stashed and all ash and waste through the toilet. This all more than 30 years ago.
I recall it was easier to get hashish than weed, he had to drive to Dortmund for the good stuff. I quit smoking weed, but I really enjoy my neighbors can grow legal now. I hope your skunk be skankin'.
Chicken filet plain cooked and shredded into thin strips. I make it for Surinam Bami and always give the cat some. When I make bami he is always close on the lookout for his share. It is gone in seconds, eats like a hungry dog.
Also chicken livers cooked and finely chopped or puréed.
The Dutch version was hilarious as well. The voice acting was great and humor, although sometimes altered, translated well. I had to get used seeing episodes in original English and rather watch it in Dutch.
No 25th anniversary here though, first season aired in 2003.
Article:
Sperm whales rattle off pulses of clicks while swimming together, raising the possibility that they’re communicating in a complex language.
Credit...Amanda Cotton
May 7, 2024
Ever since the discovery of whale songs almost 60 years ago, scientists have been trying to decipher their lyrics. Are the animals producing complex messages akin to human language? Or sharing simpler pieces of information, like dancing bees do? Or are they communicating something else we don’t yet understand?
In 2020, a team of marine biologists and computer scientists joined forces to analyze the click-clacking songs of sperm whales, the gray, block-shaped leviathans that swim in most of the world’s oceans. On Tuesday, the scientists reported that the whales use a much richer set of sounds than previously known, which they called a “sperm whale phonetic alphabet.”
People have a pho-ne-tic alphabet too, which we use to produce a practically infinite supply of words. But Shane Gero, a marine biologist at Carleton University in Ottawa and an author of the study, said it’s unclear whether sperm whales similarly turn their phonetic sounds into a language.
“The fundamental similarities that we do find are really fascinating,” Dr. Gero said. “It’s totally changed the way we have to do work going forward.”
Since 2005, Dr. Gero and his colleagues have followed a clan of 400 sperm whales around Dominica, an island nation in the eastern Caribbean, eavesdropping on the whales with u